Sugar and Spice

“My new coworker?”

“Yes. In fact, she’s here now. Why don’t you say hello?”

Jane heard the door open behind her. She turned around—and practically fell out of her chair as the familiar blonde in a black miniskirt, button-down blouse (with a few too many buttons undone), and sky-high stilettos sauntered in.

“What the—” Jane gasped.

Madison sat down next to Jane and slowly crossed her legs. “Hi, Jane! Isn’t this soooo awesome? We’re going to be working together!”

“No, no, no! There is no way in hell I’m working with her!”

Jane tried not to scream too loudly at Trevor as she paced back and forth across Trevor’s “temporary production space.” So this is why he was here today. She had suspected that something was up—but not this particular something, which was pretty much the worst something, ever. She rubbed her temples—she had a splitting headache—and she was this close to bursting into tears. Although she refused to give Trevor, or anyone eavesdropping outside the closed door, the satisfaction.

Trevor leaned back in his plush leather chair, his expression inscrutable. “It’s not going to be as bad as you think—” he began calmly.

“What? What are you talking about? You promised me, Trevor! You promised me I wouldn’t have to film any more scenes with her. And now you’re making me work with her, like, every single day? What the hell?”

“Look. I didn’t hire her. Fiona did.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Believe what you want, Jane.”

“Fine!” Jane stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. She had no choice; Trevor was forcing her hand. “Then I quit!”

There. She had said it. It was the right thing to do—wasn’t it? So why were her hands shaking, and why did she feel like throwing up?

“Quit … what? The show? Do I need to remind you that you have a contract?”

“No, not the show. I’m quitting this job.”

Trevor folded his arms across his chest. “Jane. I’m sorry you’re upset. But Madison applied for an opening here and Fiona hired her. We had nothing to do with that, but of course we had to film it. If she had shown up for her first day of work and we had missed it, PopTV would have freaked.” He added, “I don’t blame you for wanting to quit your job. But look—if you do, it’s going to look bad to viewers. They’ll think you’re a spoiled brat who didn’t get her way.”

Jane started to say something not very PG to him, then clamped her mouth shut. She hated to admit it, but he was right. She knew the truth: Madison was a crazy, lying, manipulative bitch who would run over her own mother with a bus if it would make her rich and famous. But all those L.A. Candy fans out there didn’t know that, and if Jane left Fiona Chen Events, they would basically think that Madison had won. That Jane had skulked away in a huff.

Jane had worked hard to get this job. Unlike Madison, who obviously only wanted the airtime, Jane actually wanted to be an event planner and maybe even run her own firm someday. She was not about to let Madison push her out of the way now. She would just have to suck it up and beat Madison at her own game somehow.

On the other hand … Madison, every day? Mornings, afternoons, and evenings and weekends, too, working events? How was Jane going to survive that?

She sank down in one of the conference chairs and twisted a lock of hair around and around her index finger. “I need to discuss this with R.J. and Sam,” she said finally, referring to her agent and publicist.

“Of course. And if you really feel the need to quit—well, I’ll respect your choice.”

Jane glared at Trevor. “Respect” was about the last thing she was feeling from him at this moment.

Madison was waiting outside the conference room when Jane stormed out.

“Hey … Jane?” Madison plastered on a faux-concerned expression and placed her super-fake-looking fingernails on Jane’s arm. Jane had to resist the urge to flinch since there was a camera guy standing not six feet away.

“What?” Jane snapped, pretending to glance at her watch.

“Look. I know this is kinda awkward. But I’m willing to make this work if you are.”

Yeah, right. “Whatever. I’m late for a meeting,” Jane lied.

“Jane, you’ve got to stop blaming me for what happened between you and Jesse. I know you think I told Jesse you cheated on him, but I didn’t.”

“What?” Now Jane was totally confused. What was Madison talking about? Of course Madison was responsible for what happened between her and Jesse—or at least for telling Gossip and the entire world about Jane hooking up with Braden. Jane couldn’t believe Madison was pretending she hadn’t done anything wrong, when they both knew perfectly well what she did.

“We need to move on,” Madison said, squeezing Jane’s arm. “Hey, what are you doing tomorrow tonight? You want to go out for a drink? We could go to Bar Marmont. It’ll be like old times!”

“Old times? Like when I trusted you and you stabbed me in the back? Yeah, those were great times. Besides, I’m busy tomorrow tonight, and so are you. We have a CD launch at the Thompson Hotel at seven. You should know that, since you work here. Oh, except … I forgot. You’re only pretending to work here.” Jane fake-smiled at Madison. “Have a nice day shopping or getting a mani-pedi or whatever you’re planning on doing.”

Madison smiled back at her. Jane frowned. Why was she smiling? And then she remembered. The camera guy. Jane had just acted like a total shrew to Madison on camera. Which is probably exactly what Madison—and Trevor—had been angling for all along.

Crap!

“Ohmigod, I hate my life,” Jane moaned to Scarlett.

“Poor Janie. Here, have another slice.” Scarlett slapped another wedge of pizza onto Jane’s plate. Tucker put his paw on Scarlett’s knee and stared longingly at her—or rather, the pizza. “There’s only one solution. You’ve gotta quit.”

“I can’t quit, Scar. That’s what Madison wants.”

“Who cares what that psycho wants? You’ve got to think about you.”

“I am thinking about me. I was there first. I can’t let her push me out.”

Scarlett sighed and shook her head. Tonight, she was dressed in one of her usual outfits: distressed skinnies and a wrinkled plum T-shirt. She wore only mascara, and her long, wavy black hair was uncombed. How did she manage to look so gorgeous, anyway?

“You know there’s no way Madison just happened to get that job, right?” Scarlett said after a moment. “Trevor totally arranged it with Fiona.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Did he admit it?”

Jane gave her friend a scathing are you serious? look. The truth was, Trevor was more than capable of “arranging” all sorts of situations for the sake of ratings. For example, soon after the series premiere last fall, Hannah had joined Fiona Chen Events, and the show. She became one of Jane’s good friends and closest confidantes, even encouraging Jane to stay with Jesse when things got bad between them. Later, Hannah admitted tearfully to Jane that Trevor had gotten her the job with Fiona as part of a deal to be “Jane’s office mate” on the show—and that he had instructed her to give Jane pro-Jesse advice, to keep the two of them together, since their stormy relationship was wildly popular with viewers.

Jane had forgiven Hannah; she knew firsthand how persuasive Trevor could be. However, she had never confronted Trevor about this piece of underhandedness—mostly because she didn’t want to get Hannah in trouble. But now he was up to his same old tricks, with Madison. How much more could Jane take?

“Okay. So how are we going to get you through the next, uh, however long Madison lasts at her so-called job?” Scarlett said, swigging at a bottle of Corona. “Therapy? Meds? Or should we install a punching bag in your office?”

Jane giggled. It felt good to joke around with her best friend. “Maybe all of the above. Seriously, I’ve got to figure out how to keep my mouth shut when Madison tries to bait me into saying stuff. Like today? She said this thing to me on camera about how I had to stop blaming her for telling Jesse that I cheated on him. And then she stood there smiling at me like some creepy doll when I shot back at her. I can’t win. I freak out because I can’t be fake and pretend like she’s not a crazy person, and then I end up looking like the crazy person.”

“Wait, back up. Haven’t you watched the season premiere yet? The thing about you supposedly blaming her for supposedly telling Jesse that stuff? Which is crap? She said that to Gaby, too.”

“She did?” Jane had missed the PopTV screening of that episode, and she hadn’t gotten around to watching it on TiVo yet.

“Yeah. I think that’s how she … or, more likely, Trevor … decided to play this one out. I mean, he has to come up with some explanation about why you moved out of her apartment, right? Because he can’t air the actual explanation, which is that Madison sold those photos to Gossip and lied about it.”